The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 09, 2017
Filed:
Nov. 02, 2012
Google Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Jean-Christophe E. Lilot, Mountain View, CA (US);
Nishant A. Thakkar, Mountain View, CA (US);
Pavan Desikan, Palo Alto, CA (US);
David M. Byttow, San Francisco, CA (US);
Google Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for managing the visibility of relationships within a social network. One method includes an operation for enabling a person to establish a first follow relationship from the person to an entity in the social network. However, the entity is disabled to establish a second follow relationship from the entity to the person until the first follow relationship from the person to the entity is established. Further, the establishment of the first follow relationship with a limited visibility is detected, and the establishment of the second follow relationship is also detected. The method further includes an operation for disabling a user in the social network to obtain visibility of the second follow relationship if the first follow relationship is invisible to the user.